Las Vegas & Grand Canyon w/ kids
 

We are taking our kids (6 & 9 years old) to see the Grand Canyon. Plan to fly into Vegas, stay for a night or 2. We would like to see the Hoover Dam & Grand Canyon. I am looking for a recommendation on 1) the best kids pools in Vegas & 2) whether we should go to the North Rim or South Rim. We Plan to head for California after the Grand Canyon (either Yosimite or LA/SD).

We did a similar trip. Can't help with the Vegas hotel as we rented a house in Vegas, but can say when we walked into our Canyon view suite at El Tovar on the South Rim, my son, then about 11 or 12, took in the view, turned and said solemnly to me "THANK YOU" and gave me a big hug.

My recommendation would be to get a room with a view of the canyon, if possible, and there may be more of those choices at the South Rim. I think there is more activity there.

Also, the closer you are to the canyon the easier it is to get up to see the sunrise, which my daughter (then 7 or 8 years old) and I did a couple of mornings -- a special time for us.

We enjoyed Hoover Dam, even more than I thought we would.

We did not particularly like Vegas with younger kids. The casions won't let you stop or pause -- children and families with children have to keep moving at all times. The pool should be fun, though!

We spent one spring break in San Diego, and the children rank that trip as one of their favorites. We did the typical kid stuff (Legoland, Zoo, Disneyland, etc.) and it was all fun. If you do go to SD, be sure and have a meal at the Corvette Diner.

Have a great trip.

I recently posted a similar question as we are also planning a summer family vacation with our two kids (flying into Vegas and then travelling on to Utah to see Zion and Bryce) so you can click on my name and read the responses.

I will also try to summarize what I have discovered thus far, and bear in mind that I am trying to plan a very nice vacation but on a tight budget so am really scouring for deals, which you may not need to do. Also, we like to stay in nice places and for the Vegas portion of it, a cabana rental for our full day there is what I am bound and determined to provide for the kids (given that it will be mid July and that the pool will be a big draw for them and I want guaranteed shade for portions of the day). Also, being on or near the strip doesn't matter to us... would rather not be around major amounts of gamblers so away from the crowds is fine for us.

The pool/hotel combo that seems to be great and child friendly is the Mandalay Bay. Their accomodations in The Hotel are all suites, get great reviews and give you extra space. I've called multiple times to find out what the cost for a cabana rental is and haven't been able to get an answer (either waiting on hold for 20 minutes, or pool is closed and they are the only people who can answer that, etc. etc).

I did book a hotel which wasn't disclosed until after purchase on bookit.com which turned out to be The Venetian (which gives us access to the Palazzo pool as well). The rate was good: $116/night, but the cabana rental is $300 and includes nothing in terms of drinks/food, etc, so I have been looking around for a better deal.

Some of the better deals are unforunately at places that I would consider to be low on the family friendly scale.

One such place is Palms Place. What a deal... $159 per night for a suite (apparently drop dead gorgeous... very new) and this includes free cabana rental with drinks and fruit platter.

Another good deal and also not family oriented is the M Resort. Through travelzoo you can get a room (huge, gorgeous, billion dollar brand new resort) for $54/night and buy two nights, get the third free (which sounds like you don't need since you will be there only one or two nights). www.themresort.com

One place I would gladly stay is the Red Rock Casino... have been watching for deals on that one.

I've been on hotwire a bunch and have seen prices come down for my dates and am matching up the stars/amenities with the list on betterbidding.com to see what it might be. One that is coming up a lot lately is the Wynn, which I think is gorgeous, but when I called to inquire about a cabana they said that you are put on a waitlist and don't find out until you are there if they'll give you one... deal breaker for me.

Will be curious to see other responses to your post as it helps me too.

Good luck and have a great trip.

thanks for the helpful information. I suspect the Casinos are holding on to the Cabanas for "whales". I think we are going to fly into Vegas, stay for 2 nights & head for the south rim. Then we are going to drive to LA.

We had a terrible time recently at the Mandalay Bay.... I would NOT do it without the cabana rental; it is essential. There is no shade in most of the pool area otherwise AND they run out of sitting capacity for their guests by mid morning. In addition, I noticed people started lining up almost an hour before the pool opened due to awareness of these inadequate resources. Not the way I want to spend my vacation. I have a vague recollection their cabana rental was about $200 per day.

We stayed at Wynn in April with Hotwire. The pool area is fantastic, as there are many areas as opposed to one enormous area. Due to the configuration of the buildings (Wynn and Encore), there's plenty of shade (which varies, of course, with time of year and time of day).

If you don't mind being away from the strip, we thought South Point was beautiful and it is very family friendly, especially with regard to dining and activities.

Just responding back to mamadadapaige regarding the cabana rentals at the Mandalay Bay.... did you try booking the cabana online? You can see costs and make reservations from their website:

https://res05.mgmmirage.com/cgi-bin/...10):MBBEACHCAB

If the website says that they are full, it's still worth calling to see if they have anything (if you can get through to them)...

Good luck!

dreaming... thank you - I NEVER saw that!! amazing because I've been all over the website a million times. thanks so much.